Page 33 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Introduction xxi

by the same metallic oxides as formed the basis of the cognate
glazes on Ming pottery. They used high-fired feldspathic glazes,
white, browish green, chocolate brown, purplish black, and tea-

dust green, sometimes with frothy splashes of grey or bluish grey,
as on the Sung wares. Sometimes these glazes were superposed as

on the Japanese tea jars, which avowedly owed their technique
to Chinese models. It is evident that streaked and mottled effects
appealed specially to the taste of the time, and marbling both of
the glaze and of the body was practised. Carving designs in low
relief, or incising them with a pointed instrument and filling in the
spaces with coloured glazes, stamping small patterns on the body,
and applying reliefs which had been previously pressed out in
'moulds, were methods employed for surface decoration. Painted
designs in unfired pigments appear on some of the tomb wares,
and it is now practically certain that painting in black under
a green glaze was used by the T'ang potters. Moreover, the

existence of porcelain proper in the T'ang period is definitely

established.

One of the most remarkable features of T'ang pottery is the

strong Hellenistic flavour apparent in the shapes of the vessels

and in certain details of the ornament, particularly in the former.
Other foreign influences observable in T'ang art are Persian, Sas-
sanian, Sc}i:ho-Siberian, and Indian, and one would say that Chinese
art at this period was in a peculiarly receptive state. As compared
with the conventional style of later ages which we have come to
regard as characteristically Chinese, the T'ang art is quite dis-

tinctive, and almost foreign in many of its aspects.
The revelation of T'ang ceramics has provided many surprises,

and doubtless there are more in store for us. There are certainly

many gaps to fill and many apparent anomalies to explain. We

are still in the dark with regard to the potter's art of the four hun-

dred years which separate the Han and T'ang dynasties. The

Buddhist sculptures of this time reveal a high level of artistic

development, and we may assume that the minor arts, and pottery
among them, were not neglected. When some light is shed from

excavation or otherwise upon this obscure interval, no doubt we